The One in Most in Need of a Guardian
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: This is a fem Ichigo story- and Ichigo's first name is different. It's explained in chap two. Trouble seemed to follow her around like a dark cloud, tainting everything with sadness, sorrow and loss. Their lives weren't much different, though they would probably argue otherwise. (Not sure of any pairings yet- tempted to do a Raphael/Ichigo. But might try someone else.) Rated M.
1. Chapter 1

The first time _it_ happened was after a particularly bad mission.

They had all started to go back home after a particularly bad fight against the Purple Dragons and were fully prepared to curl up together in their living room and watch movies and eat some pizza and simply relax for a while. And maybe give their bruises and other minor injuries some time to heal a little bit before they found themselves in the thick of things again.

They had just walked into the lair when they were met by Splinter, April and Casey. Splinter had a concerned expression on his face that bordered on apprehension, while April looked anxious and Casey... Well Casey looked as if he were sort of in shock, his expression was one of someone that was a million miles away.

Sighing, the four of them trudged over to the others and began to seat themselves as Leo asked what was wrong. He knew that Splinter, April and Casey couldn't be upset about their injuries considering the fact that they were mostly little cuts and bruises.

Which meant that whatever had them freaking out was something else altogether.

Splinter exchanged a worried glance with April as she replied, "I got a letter from a lawyer today informing me that I now have sole custody of a fifteen in a half year old girl whom is the daughter of an old school mate from college. Apparently he couldn't think of anyone else who might take her in if anything happened to him- so he named me her godmother and guardian. She'll be coming to the city to live with me and Casey until she's old enough to be on her own."

Leo, Don, Raph, and Mikey all simply stared at her as if they were unable to fully wrap their minds around what their adopted sister had just said.

Then again, maybe they were simply in shock like Casey was. It was hard to tell.

Finally after several moments of utter silence, Don managed to ask. "W-What is she like?"

"According to the stuff that my old school mate sent me through the lawyer, she's a really good kid. A little bit of a punk. Tends to wind up in fights, but nothing too terrible. She's well liked by her friends and classmates. She does odd jobs for her neighbors. She sometimes watches little kids and helps out the elderly. She get's excellent grades, her grade point average is almost better than my own was back in the day."

"I'm not going to lie and say that she's perfect... In fact the lawyer told me that she was in a strange incident almost eight months ago where several of her friends wound up disappearing without a trace, two more wound up murdered, and she was beaten and injured so badly that she wound up in a coma for the past six months."

"So...she's in trouble then?"

"I honestly don't really know," April said quietly. "The lawyer said that she had spoken to the police several times and wasn't really able to tell them much of anything about what happened. From the way she talked, she and her friends simply wound up caught in the cross fire of two rival gangs or something. A wrong time, wrong place type of thing. Ya know?"

"The police spoke with three more of her friends who were also involved in the incident and closed the case after clearing them all of any wrong doing. From what the other kids said about her, she tried to protect them and their friends and was simply overwhelmed."

"Do you really believe that story?"

"I-I honestly don't know. Everything that the lawyer gave me indicated that she is a very thoughtful, studious, kind and compassionate kid. I can't really imagine someone with her personality getting into such trouble."

"What else can you tell us about her?"

"Oh! I'm sorry, I guess that I forgot about the other stuff in the file. Hold on a second," April said and she walked off and returned a few moments later with a yellow file stuffed full of papers and such and then sat down on the arm of the chair where Mikey was sitting and opened it and began to read aloud. "Name- Shion 'Ichigo' Kurosaki. Age- fifteen in a half. Birthday- November the tenth. Height- five foot eleven inches. She's a high school student. Father's name is Isshin Kurosaki. Mother- Misaki, deceased. Misaki apparently was murdered while walking Shion home from karate class when she was seven."

"According to the statement that Shion gave the authorities, she never saw the assailant that killed her mother. She was looking elsewhere at the moment of the attack. All that she really seemed to recall was hearing her mother scream and then something heavy hit her from behind and she blacked out."

"When she woke up she couldn't breathe. She said that it took her a little bit to manage to get her mother's arm out from around her neck. Apparently whoever had attacked her mother, had thrown her into her after she had been killed. Shion woke up pinned underneath her body, and upon realizing what was wrong, tried to wake her mother. She was found two hours later by her dad."

Everyone was silent for a moment once April stopped speaking, letting their minds sort through the information that they had just been given when she pulled something out of the file and held it out to first Splinter, who took the piece of paper and studied it for a moment before then handing it to the son sitting closest to him.

Raph took the paper with a scowl and looked at it.

It was apparently a picture of the girl.

She was a gorgeous little thing. Japanese American, in origin given her exotically beautiful features. Everything from the shape of her eyes, the color, her hair, and even her build told him that she was of mixed blood. After all, there weren't many Japanese americans that he could think of with such eerie colored eyes.

Unlike others with similar origin, Shion had neon blue eyes that were rimmed in turquoise. Her dark hair was long, and had at some point been cut and styled similar to a mullet before it had grown out in layers of dark silk that hung in her eyes, around her jawline, and down her back nearly to her waist.

She had soft ivory skin, pale pink lips, a lithe dancer's build.

Humming, he handed the picture to one of the others and let them see it too as Leo asked, "What do you want us to do, April?"

"Well... I was running some ideas by Splinter and we both sort of agreed that you guys would all have to meet her at some point. To- ya know, gauge whether or not she's a threat or could become one sometime on down the line. If you guys met her, and we all got a good feel for her personality, then maybe..."

"Master? You're okay with this?" Don asked as he glanced up from the picture in his hand to look at his father. Splinter was quiet for several moments before softly sighing and then saying.

"April has a point. If the girl is to be around for several years, then meeting her would be unavoidable considering that the Purple Dragons and the Foot clan both know of our connection to April and Casey. Not meeting her, even if it just to warn her of the dangers that she would face just by being close to them- would be irresponsible of us."

Leo and the other considered their master's words for several minutes as they continued to pass the picture around among themselves, each of them studying the girl in it and her features. Committing them to memory along with rest of the information about her in the back of their minds for later use as Leo asked, "When will she be here?"

"Two days from now. She'll be coming with a few friends who've been worried about her since her release from the hospital. I think that they think the stress of moving somewhere unknown might be too much for her."

"Where will she stay?"

"Well, Casey and I renovated the spare apartment in my building because we wanted to rent it out. Our place doesn't really have any more spare room, and I already talked things over with the lawyer and he assured me that if I wanted to rent the place out to her- that she had money to pay for it, plus utilities and living expenses. He also said that we could keep the money that we charge her for rent, or we could put some of it in a trust for her just in case she wants to go to college here in the city or something. Neither idea seems bad. So..."

"So everything is basically set."

April nodded and gave then a nervous smile before saying, "Everything but some furniture is taken care of."

"Okay, so how do you want us to meet her?"

"Well, I thought that maybe you could wait a few weeks to let her get settled in a bit and let me and Casey observe her and get a feel for her personality some. And then we would report our findings back to you guys and Splinter and once the few weeks are up, we'd invite all of you over to dinner with her and introduce you."

"Okay, so we have a plan," Leo said as Mikey handed the picture back to April once he was finished looking at it as Leo then tacked on, "Keep us informed then."

"I will," April said before glancing over at Casey and huffing a little bit before then asking, "Is it okay if I leave him here for a bit? If I try to take him home now, he'll be useless."

The brothers all snickered as Splinter nodded his head and simply said, "That may be for the best for now."


	2. Chapter 2

Shion 'Ichigo' Kurosaki, stepped off of the plane two days later, feeling as if she were going to hurl any second now. She was so nervous at the moment that she almost wished that her dad were with her so that she could sock him in the face for doing this to her without really speaking to her about it first.

However she understood his reasons for sending her away after he had abandoned her very well.

Aizen and some of his flunkies had approached her dad while she had been in her coma, and had threatened him and her sisters if he didn't hand her over to them. To say that her dad hadn't taken being threatened well would be an understatement.

Which was why the second he was home, he grabbed her sisters and locked up the home that they had lived in since their birth and had left town after he had taken care of a few things so that she would be taken care of once he was gone. He had left a substantial amount of money. Probably more than she'd ever use during her time away from Japan. A legal document with her new name- _Shion_, who the hell named their kid Shion now a days anyway?- some black hair dye, a burner phone to keep in touch with, and a letter detailing his instructions to her.

He had left her figuring that as long as she was elsewhere- under an assumed name, and such- and far, far,_ far_ away from her family- then she and they were supposedly safe from Aizen's reach.

After all, the man was a lunatic.

And not the 'ha, ha' entertaining kind either. No, the man was in fact the very personification of the words, _bat-shit crazy_. Feeling someone come up behind her, she automatically tensed up but began to relax again when she realized that it was just Chad and not some random stranger.

Feeling his hand as he gently laid it on top of her head, he ruffled her hair affectionately before softly saying, "Let's go find our stuff."

Nodding her head slightly, she waited for him to step around her and begin walking before falling into step a foot or so behind him, her eerie neon blue eyes- which had once been a warm golden amber- now used to color them by her spiritual pressure, scanning the crowd around them for any signs of danger or trouble as she heard Orihime's voice reach her ears from somewhere behind her where she was likely wandering around, taking in the sights.

_Unless_...she had decided to talk to strangers again.

Come to think of it, maybe she should go and- She heard Orihime's voice again and visibly bristled as she stopped walking and slowly turned her head to see what the hell the girl was doing and almost _snarled_ like a feral animal at what she saw.

"Oh! Hey don't touch me there!" Orihime cried out in an embarrassed tone as some punk with a green mohawk and a nose piercing wrapped an arm around the other teen's shoulders and planted the palm of his hand right on Orihime's breast and grinned as he held up his cell phone to take a picture of him groping her.

Shion didn't even pause to think of the possible ruckus that she could cause by going to the other girl's rescue, instead she just turned and stalked back to where her friend stood frozen in mortification and reared back her fist and right as the guy took his damn picture- planted her fist in his face sending his sorry ass sprawling to the ground with a dull thud.

Reaching out with her free hand she grasped Orihime and gently tugged her away from the guy before he could take her down with him and then firmly pushed her behind her and then stepped on the guy's phone, breaking it as he absently rubbed his jaw and glared up at her.

"You bitch! What the hell is you're problem?"

Shion narrowed her eyes at him, not liking his tone any more than his filthy language. For god's sake! What the hell was wrong with _him_?! He was the one who had been groping Orihime and _delighting_ in her incredibly public humiliation. If they weren't in such a crowded area with so many people wandering about- she would have snapped both of his arms and crushed both of his knee caps and then broken his jaw for good measure.

_The creep_. She thought as she glared back at him. The look in her eerie blue eyes turning positively frigid with her anger. She was about to kick his face in when she heard as well as felt Chad rejoin her, and relaxed a little bit as she turned her head to look at him.

"Is this guy bothering the two of you?" He asked, his soft tone belying his own anger at having seen what had happened before Shion had decided to step in. Shion didn't say anything. She knew him well enough that she didn't really have to speak when she was upset by something anymore.

Like Orihime and so many others, he just knew. Her _anger_ and_ rage_ were practically a palpable thing now a days. Though she seemed to be able to keep herself fairly calm despite the underlying negative emotions Chad knew that it was only a matter of time before she lost her temper.

He just hoped that once it finally happened that she didn't do anything stupid and irreparably damaging to herself.

Laying a hand on Shion's shoulder, he gave it a gentle squeeze as he shifted his attention back to the shouting guy with the mohawk. The guy was half way through a tirade about Shion being a 'bitch' and how he needed to 'control his little slut' which frankly was starting to get on his nerves.

He didn't know what the hell was wrong with the guy, but he was tired of hearing him speak about Shion that way. Reaching out he snagged the guy by the front of his shirt and yanked him up so that his feet dangled off of the floor and got in his face and growled out. "I would watch how I speak about a lady if I were you. I don't understand what you're problem is- and frankly I don't really care. _You_ are the one in the wrong here. _Not her_. I suggest that the next time a girl tells you _not_ to do something- then you should really listen. Because if this ever happens again, I'm going to watch her put you in traction..."

Once he was done, he abruptly released the guy and let him fall none too gently to the floor with a yelp before then turning and placing both of his hands on the small of Orihime and Shion's backs and quietly began to herd them towards the luggage claim.

After that the three spent the better part of fifteen minutes collecting all of their stuff before then making their way slowly to the front of the airport to leave.

"Do you have the address for the place we're going?" Chad asked Shion for the umpteenth time in so many minutes, causing the girl to growl at him in annoyance before she nodded her head, _again_, in confirmation. "Good. Did you remember to grab your note pad and pencil?" He then asked.

"I made sure to pack note pads, pencils and pens for her Chad." Orihime chirped happily as Shion reached out and snagged her hand when a particularly large group of people came through- just to make sure that she didn't get separated from them.

Chad merely nodded his head in understanding. Knowing very well that Shion would have forgotten if someone else either didn't remind her or do it for her. "Good. Thank you Orihime."

"No prob!" The girl said cheerily.

* * *

April and Casey stood beside the car watching the door for any sign of Shion and her friends. They had been too late to pick the girl and her buddies up at the gate after the plane had landed, thanks to Casey getting home late the night before after running around half the night with the Raphael and the others.

Tapping her fingernails on her hood of the car, her green eyes scanned the faces of everyone that walked out the front of the airport as Casey fidgeted with his shirt sleeve next to her.

The past couple of days had been somewhat taxing on them for obvious reasons. Though neither of them could really find it in themselves to blame Shion for the upheaval that they were currently experiencing. After all, it wasn't like she asked to be sent to them.

She was probably just as anxious and nervous as they were about coming to a new city to live with total strangers. Finally after about twenty something agonizing minutes of waiting, April saw the girl in question walk out of the building with a girl with long reddish-orange hair and a big guy that looked as if he were part giant or something, with long-ish dark wavy hair and an incredibly muscled physique.

"There! There she is!" April said as she reached out and grabbed Casey, absently digging her long nails into his arm causing the man to yelp as he turned his head to see where April was pointing as she started to jump up and down and yell.

"_Shion!_ Hey, hey over here!"

The kid looked directly at the two of them and then reached out with her free hand and gave the giant's shirt sleeve a small tug to get his attention and then once he was looking at her, pointed at them. The guy glanced in their direction and then nodded his head as she started walking, semi dragging her little girlfriend behind her as she made her way over to them.

April stopped jumping around and simply stood there grinning so wide that her face was starting to hurt as the girl finally came to a stop directly in front of them.

"Hello!" The reddish-orange haired girl chirped at them with a smile as the giant walked over and stood behind the two girls.

April and Casey exchanged a look for a moment before turning their attention back to the kids and awkwardly greeting them. April smiled at them while Casey engaged in a staring match with the big guy behind the girls as the teen with the reddish-orange hair took a moment to introduce them all.

"Hello, my name is Orihime! This girl is Shion," She said a she reached up and put a hand on the taller teen's head before then tacking on, "And the really, really big guy with us is our friend Chad."

Chad nodded his head towards the couple and softly said 'hello'.

April laughed nervously and awkwardly introduced herself and Casey to the three when Casey asked curiously, "How come Shion hasn't spoken?" The girl's two friends exchanged a glance as April sharply elbowed Casey in the ribs and hissed at him to shut up and stop being rude as Shion dug a note pad out of one of the bags that the giant was holding and flipped it open and held it out to the pair.

The two looked down at the page curiously and read,

**Hello my name is Shion 'Ichigo' Kurosaki. **

**I'm sorry that I don't speak at the moment. **

**My vocal chords were damaged by the attack that put me in a coma, and are still healing. The doctor back home told me that it will be another three weeks or so before I can use my voice again without my throat bleeding. **

**It's nice to meet you.**

April and Casey both looked up from the note pad in the girl's hands to the girl herself and felt a stab of sympathy for her as Casey started to sputter that he was sorry and hadn't meant to sound so rude. The girl merely thinned her lips for a second and then gave him a tight lipped smile and then reached out and awkwardly patted him on the arm before then flipping the page on the note pad and then holding it out to them again so that they could read,

**I'm sorry that I didn't discuss this with either of you ahead of time- but if it's okay with you both Chad and Orihime have already expressed their wish to stay with me for the next two or three days to help me get settled in. **

**After that they plan to make themselves scarce unless they are needed or simply want to check in on me. I plan to give you two their phone number's just in case something happens and you need to contact them.**

**Is that alright?**

"Oh, um... T-That's fine hon. Now, what do you say we load up your stuff and all of us go somewhere to grab some food and get to know each other a little bit better before we head back to the building? You kids are hungry right?"

Shion blinked at the question and took a moment to look up at Chad and then Orihime. Both of whom were more than happy to get something to eat before they went to her new home. The food on the plane had been horrible. And the only real thing that had been worth eating was nothing more than a small bag of peanuts.

So understandably, all three of them were starving.

Orihime and Chad both voiced their need for food. Trying their best not to come across as rude, or weird as Shion flipped another page on her note pad and let April and Casey read,

**Forgive them, they were raised by wolves. **

**Food would actually be very appreciated since I don't want to be gnawed on by Orihime. She get's testy when she gets hungry. **

"Hey! Shion that isn't nice!" Orihime whined with a playful push at one of the taller girl's torso, not really caring one way or another if she actually managed to move her. Which she didn't, as Shion's shoulders shook with mirth as April and Casey finally seemed to relax and laughed along with her.

Once everyone managed to pull themselves together, Casey helped Chad load up the bags as April, Orihime, and Shion waited patently in the car for them to finish up so that they could go and get some food.


	3. Chapter 3

April and Casey ended up deciding against something quick like pizza for the time being and instead took the kids to an all you can eat buffet style restaurant. Which seemed to be the right move since Chad alone seemed more than able to eat three times as much as either of the girls.

Though Shion was definitely a close second at packing food away.

Orihime, was somewhat impressive herself. Though it wasn't so much the quantity of the food that she managed to eat as much as it was the weird things that she mixed together with it before she actually ate it. Who in the world ate steak, sushi, soy, ranch and hot sauce drizzled mashed potato's over peppermint ice cream with spinach and hard boiled egg halves anyways?

The second that April and Casey saw the girl's first plate, they both turned a little bit green with horror. However due to the fact that Shion and Chad didn't seem bothered by the girl's weird food topping choices, they managed to shake their nausea easily enough.

Well, sort of anyways.

To April's knowledge, Casey had to flee to the boy's room at least twice during their time at the restaurant. Leaving April to sort of ask her questions and get to know the kids a little bit.

Chad and Orihime were very open and forthcoming with their stories and answers. Shion...while she didn't seem to be hiding anything right off the bat, after a little bit of conversation it was easy enough for April to see that the girl was omitting specific pieces of information about her past.

And as much as she would have liked to call the teen on it, Shion merely scribbled something down in her note pad and handed it to her while her friends were off getting another plate of food explaining that everyone had stuff that they didn't _like_ speaking about, or simply had_ difficulty_ speaking about. April then read the words at the bottom of the note and merely nodded her head in understanding.

Taking the words, **Give me time**, as a sort of promise that the girl would eventually come clean about her secrets once she felt comfortable enough to do so. Things went much smoother after that.

The conversation shifted from stories growing up, school, making friends, and a few humorous misspent youthful adventures to how much money April and Casey were thinking of charging for rent on the apartment that Shion would be staying in and what they expected. Aside from the usual, no drinking, nor drugs- or any other illegal activity kind of stuff.

April told Shion that she and Casey were planning to charge six hundred dollars every two or so months for the apartment, which would include the utilities. Lights, water, heating and air. And that they also wanted to get at least six hundred more extra for any furniture and appliances that she may need to get after explaining what the apartment already had as far as furnishings went.

Shion merely nodded her head in understanding and told her that she would pay her once they were back at the apartment. She didn't bother mentioning that she had close to twenty something thousand dollars in one of her suit cases out in the car.

And the rest was in the bank account that her dad's lawyer had set up for her. Nor did she bother to mention that she was carrying close to fifteen thousand on her person. Or rather on Chad's person since she didn't tend to carry a purse or wallet and the big guy had no issues whatsoever with her 'borrowing' the use of his.

She'd also given him and Orihime some money to find themselves an apartment and get anything that they may need since they had practically uprooted themselves and moved out of Japan right along with her.

Once they had all finished eating, and the a nice tip was left behind for the poor shmuck that had to clear off their plate cluttered table- the five left and started their short trek back to the car. They managed to get around the corner of the building when they ran into their first bit of trouble.

Some rough looking guys wearing black and purple were standing around April and Casey's car. Their hands tightly gripping crowbars and chains as the small group approached.

April was freaking out. This was so not what she needed right now! Just what the hell were some Purple Dragons doing hanging around her car?!

"Well, well," One of the punks started to say the moment that he turned and saw April and Casey. "If it isn't the freaks friends..."

Shion glanced between the group and her legal guardians with a dark look on her face. She didn't know who these guys were but it was obvious by the way that April and Casey were acting that they did. And they weren't terribly nice guys if their behavior was anything to go by.

The word, _Threat_, slithered through her mind in bold black letters- tugging viciously at her protective instincts- causing her to peel her lips back from her teeth in a silent snarl of warning as the group of punks slowly moved away from the car and started walking towards them.

"Orihime, stay behind me." Chad said softly as he pushed his friend behind him and then glanced over at April and her boyfriend, wondering if he needed to grab them too. These guys looked like they could do some serious damage to the two if he or Shion were to simply stand there and let them.

And that was something that Shion wouldn't do anymore than he would. Neither of them had never really been the types to stand idly by and let others get hurt if they could prevent it. It simply went against everything in their very nature to do so.

The group or punks came to a stop several feet from them and took a moment to look them all over before finally noticing Chad, Orihime and Shion standing a little ways behind April and Casey. "What's this? New friends?" The guy that seemed to be the spokesperson for the punks asked as he eyed the three teens.

Shion seemed to hold no interest to him. Chad and Orihime on the other hand...

"Hey big guy, whos the cutie hiding behind you?"

"Stay away from them." Casey growled at the guy as he automatically stepped in front of the guy to keep him from staring at Chad or Orihime any further. The punk turned his attention to Casey and sneered as he mocked him.

"Stay away from them. Boo-hoo. Get the hell out of my way Jones," The guy punctuated his words by punching Casey in the stomach hard enough to send him to his knees earning a panicked cry from April before he kneed him in the face, bloodying his nose pretty badly and then stepping over him as one of his friends snuck up behind April and grabbed her. "I was talking to the big guy." The punk said absently as he kept walking while April struggled to free herself.

Shion heaved a sigh and reached up to pinch the bridge of her nose for a second, drawing attention to herself by doing so. "What the hell is your problem girly?" The punk growled at her menacingly as he came to a stand still well out of Chad's reach, just in case he decided to try something.

Shion merely dropped her hand back to her side and gave the guy a bored look that had the punk's hackles raising as she glanced over at Chad and Orihime for a moment, silently conveying that she'd take care of clearing them away while they helped April and Casey.

The punk apparently didn't like being ignored, because one second he was standing there gnashing his teeth and the next he had lifted the hand clutching the thick, heavy chain and started to bring it down on her.

Shion's reacting was instant. Years and years of experience fighting against great numbers and even greater odds conditioning her reflexes to respond to violence with offensive and defensive maneuvers.

Lifting one of her arms, she allowed the chain to hit and wrap around it as she heard April scream at her and the others to run away in alarm. She could vaguely see that Casey was attempting to get up and come help her and the others, but he was pinned to the ground by several of the punks friends, and was struggling hard to escape.

The punk smirked evilly, thinking that he had managed to both injure and scare her shitless as Orihime barely managed to mutter, "Oh, you really shouldn't have done that-" Before she wound the chain around her hand and yanked it hard enough to force the punk towards her so that she could knee him hard in the sensitive area on his torso located between his chest and stomach.

And then once he was down on his knees, slammed her elbow viciously into the side of his head. Not nearly hard enough to kill him since that wasn't her aim, but definitely hard enough to concuss him _badly_ by rattling his brain. Grabbing him by the scruff of his neck she then picked him up and flung him into some of his friends several feet away and then stuffed her hands in her jean pockets and waited.

The second that the guy's body hit and knocked down three of his fellow punks, all attention shifted to her and everyone simply froze. The punks. April. Hell, even Casey was staring at her wide eyed in shock.

And then...and then all hell broke loose.

The guys that had pinned Casey down stepped away from him along with several others, and made a beeline straight for her.

Shion merely rolled her eyes- because, _my god_, did no one ever _learn_ anything? She wondered to herself as they surrounded her and moved to attack. It was a stupid move on their part. Like really, really stupid. And they found that out really damned fast as she used some of the old karate moves that she had used as a kid to lay each and every one of them out flat on either their faces or backs, groaning and crying in pain.

Before she then looked to the last of the punks that remained standing and gave them a cold, yet _feral_ looking smile that had them quickly releasing April and Casey and running away screaming.

Once they were gone, she walked over to Casey and knelt down next to him and fished out a kerchief that she had gotten into the habit of carrying with her sometime after meeting Rukia due to how often she or someone else tended to get injured, and gently grasped his chin and tilted his head back and pressed the kerchief to his nose.

He winced under the contact, but allowed her to do it nevertheless as April stammered out in a strained tone, "H-How- What? Y-you know h-how to fight?"

"Of course she does," Orihime replied for her as she and Chad walked over to check on the couple and see for themselves that they were fairly unharmed. "Just because she doesn't like fighting or anything doesn't mean that she doesn't know how too. After all, Shion is one of Japan's top ranked fighters!" Technically it wasn't a lie.

She was one of Japan's top ranked fighters. Just not in a purely _official_ capacity.

April seemed to take a minute to wrap her mind around Orihime's explination before asking, "Really?" Chad and Orihime both nodded, their expressions somber.

"What kind of fighting style do you use?" Casey asked, curiously as he finally took over holding the kerchief to his face so that she could stand and help him to his feet. Shion took a moment to consider his question before motioning to Chad to hand her her note pad.

The sooner she explained something, the sooner that they could leave before the punks came back with re enforcements.

Chad handed her her note pad and then stood back as she scribbled out an explanation without giving too much detail about her actual skills. She merely wrote down- **Karate, and mixed martial arts**, and then handed the note pad to April to read.

April raised a brow at the somewhat vague explanation and then held the note pad out for Casey to read before saying, "Well that is rather impressive..."

"Yeah. Can you name any of the actual practices?" Casey asked with a hint of suspicion in his tone as he handed Shion back the note pad. She looked at the two of them strangely for a moment and then sighed and quickly wrote down.

**Judo, Karate, Kickboxing, Aikido, Muay Thai, Taekwondo, Krav Maga…. Anything else you wanna know? Cause we should really leave before those guys come back with more friends. **

**As much as I like a good brawl every now and again, I very much doubt that they'll come back unarmed. And there is simply too much of a chance that someone- or more, might bring a gun. And I don't know about you two, but I'd really rather not get myself shot on my first day here. **

April and Casey read the words and knew that she wasn't wrong.

Especially since the Dragon's were likely to come back with Hun and a few Foot in tow. And as for weapons- while a gun was likely, if the Dragons came back with Hun and some Foot soldiers, then it was far more likely that they would have throwing stars, katana's, sai's and other things.

Which meant that the chances of someone getting injured was far greater than it had been before.

"Alright, lets go." Casey said as he calmly walked around the car to the driver's side, and quickly unlocked the door and then slid into the driver's seat and started the vehicle as everyone else quickly and quietly climbed in.


	4. Chapter 4

**Ugh...so sleepy. **

**I've been working on this for a little over a week and haven't slept more than two in a half hours in the past four days. So if none of this makes sense...that's why.**

* * *

The ride back to the apartment was an unnervingly silent one. Honestly one would think that after something like what had happened with the Purple Dragons earlier- that _someone_ would be freaking out. But the kids were eerily quiet about the incident.

Meanwhile April and Casey didn't really know _what_ to think about what had happened. On one hand, they were somewhat releived that they had managed to get away fairly unscathed. Casey's broken nose, and few bruises- aside. And on the other hand, they were incredibly worried about Shion's safety and well being.

Despite Orihime and Shion's assurances that the girl knew how to fight, Shion had placed herself directly in danger's path. Hun had likely been informed of the incident earlier already, and would either be out looking for Shion- either to beat the shit out of her, or recruit her.

After all, there weren't many people that they knew that could do what Shion had done and simply walk away without fear of any repercussion. And they already knew that Shion had an better understanding of that fact than her friends apparently seemed too.

The kid didn't look like it because she tended to bury her thoughts and feelings pretty deep so that others couldn't read her, but Casey was pretty good at reading people. He'd gotten years and years of practice from hanging around Raph, and could easily tell that she was probably pretty worried about what may/could happen next.

And was trying to plan accordingly.

She was probably trying to figure out the best way/ways to keep him, April and her two friends from getting hurt. And if that was the case, he just hoped that the kid knew that she couldn't afford to do anything reckless or stupid.

Glancing in the mirror at the kid, he noted the careful way that she was watching her surrounding through the window. Taking note of every alley location, every street sign, every building exct. And had to bite back a small grin.

It was looking more and more like the kid was similar to him and Raph.

She may not necessarily like fighting, but she definitely didn't shy away from it. Deeming it a necessary evil that was okay to indulge in on occasion. If that was the case, then it wouldn't surprise him any if he and Raph and the other guys began to run into her from time to time when they were all out on patrol from now on.

Once at the apartment, April disappeared on them. Probably to go and call the guys and tell them about what had happened. Which was fine. He'd see Raph later on tonight and tell him what he knew about what had happened just in case April forgot something.

Not that she would. But his girlfriend was understandably upset at the moment and was trying hard not to flip out. When she got like that- she tended to forget some of the small things.

"Is April okay?" Orihime asked once she noticed that the red head was missing. Shion looked up from the back of the car where she was grabbing a few of her things, and scanned the front of the building with slightly narrowed eyes as Casey gave a nervous chuckle and said.

"She's fine kid. Maybe a little bit rattled by what happened earlier but then she has every right to be."

"Oh. Okay." Orihime muttered in a sulking tone as Shion grabbed another of her bags only to have it taken from her grasp by Chad.

"No heavy lifting- _doctor's orders_." He said gently as he used the palm of his hand to bodily direct her out of the way so that he could grab what was left of everything while the dark haired girl stood off ot the side with Orihime and huffed in annoyance as Chad walked over to them and handed Orihime one of her smaller bags while Casey closed the trunk of the car.

"Come on kids, let me take you up to the apartment." He said as he walked by the three and over to the front door. The teens exchanged a look and then shrugged and then fell into step behind each other as they followed Casey inside.

The moment that they stepped into the building, Shion tilted her head to the side a little bit as she quietly closed the door behind her and locked it. Above their heads she could easily make out the sounds of April pacing anxiously back and forth and could even pick up bits and pieces of conversation that she seemed to be having on her phone with someone named, Leo.

She was agitated. Very much so if the semi whispered pitches and tones of her voice were any indication at all.

_"I know that it's dangerous Leo, but what the hell could Casey and I do while pinned?! Well it isn't as if I didn't try to get them to run!"_ She heard April hissed out as Shion slowly followed the others up the stairs, her focus shifting back and forth a little bit between anything Casey and the others were/or could be saying while listening to April continue to speak to her...friend?

She walked by one door that looked as if it belonged to an apartment, and let her gaze flicker to it briefly as she heard April practically snarl out before her voice and tone changed to a barely inaudible panicked, sounding squeak, _"Fuck no the kid didn't listen! She stomped the asses of over a dozen Purple Dragons and scared the rest of them off. Her two friends didn't even move from behind her. They just let her- Oh dear god... That one Dragon hit her arm with a chain! I_ _completely forgot to even ask her if she was okay!" _

She could make out the faintest sound from the person that April was speaking too. Something between a snort and a sigh before April started speaking again, _"Yes I know that chains hurt, Leo! And I'm well aware that we should probably take the girl to the hospital to have her arm x-rayed. Y-you don't think that it's fractured or broken or anything do you? Uh-huh, yeah okay... I-I guess that it couldn't at least hurt to check." _

April sighed tiredly before muttering_, "What a way to start out a day in a new city... Hn, oh sure. Thanks Leo. Tell the others that Casey will probably be coming down later. Yes. Alright bye."_

* * *

Leo had just put away his shell cell when Raph walked up and asked, "Is everything with April and Casey okay?" Leo looked at his brother and mulled over everything that April had just told him about what had happened with the Dragon's and tried to decide if he should say anything to Raph or not knowing that if he did, his hot headed brother just might run off to check on their human friends.

Whether it was necessary or not.

"They're fine," Leo said after a moment or so of careful consideration. Was omitting certain facts really considered lying? He wondered as Raph leaned his shoulder against the wall a few feet or so from him and crossed his arms over his chest and gave him his famous _I-know-that-you're-lying-to-me _look. Causing Leo to practically crumble before his eyes. "Okay, okay," He said nervously before going on to say, "They had a little run in with the Dragons. Casey's nose got broken, again, and the both of them were pinned down by some of the punks."

Raph made a growling sound and made to push away from the wall even as Leo stepped in front of him and held his hands up to stop him as he blurted out, "They're okay Raph! Really. April was just upset because of the kid, Shion."

Raph focused his unblinking dark eyes on his older brother and hissed out angrily, "What? Did the kid make buddies with the assholes or something?"

"What? _No, no, no!_ That isn't what happened at all. Apparently she-" Leo was cut off by Mikey and Don suddenly appearing out of thin air and practically demanding to know what was going on. Leo made a strained sound in the back of his throat and thought briefly that if he'd had hair right then he was pretty sure that he'd be ripping it out as he retold his brothers what April had told him.

* * *

Shion put up with April fussing over her arm with all the grace and dignity of a queen, despite the fact that it was only a tad bit swollen and bruised from being hit earlier.

And right after April was done wrapping her arm and icing it, she gently waved the woman's concern off and moved to explore her new home a little bit while Chad carried her things into the bedroom and opened her suit case full of money and pulled out several thousand to cover the rent and utilities for the next four to five months.

And then walked out of the bedroom while she was stepping in to look around, and secretly passed her the money before rejoining Orihime in the living room area while the other teen checked out the kitchen and stuff to see what they would need to get.

Once Shion rejoined the rest of them, she handed the money over to April as Orihime and Chad took turns asking questions about local grocery stores and shops so that they could help her get stuff later on. And once they were satisfied that their questions had been answered adequately, Shion ushered the couple out of the apartment so that she and the others could look around some more and get comfortable.

They would have some errands to run later on, stuff like getting bed sheets, pillows, blankets, pots, pans, dishes, food, drinks, hygiene products, some spare clothing and shoes exct.


	5. Chapter 5

An hour or so after Shion had ushered April and Casey out of her new home, she was unpacked- well, sort of anyways. The money that she had hidden in one of her suit cases had been carefully divided up and hidden in one of the vents in her bedroom, behind her dresser, and in a tiny cubby-like space that she had found in her closet.

After that was done, she joined Chad and Orihime in the kitchen where the two were patiently waiting for her so that they could leave to do the necessary shopping to get her through the next few years.

Chad had already decided that he would make sure that she had pots, pans, plates, glasses, forks, knives and spoons as well as some cleaning supplies and such.

While Orihime had decided that she was going to pick out the bed sheets, pillow, curtains, bowls, glasses, and any other small decorative pieces that would make Shion's apartment bearable to live in.

Which would leave Shion free to get herself some new clothing, shoes, food and anything else that she planned on getting. Though knowing her, she was probably already had an idea of what she was going to be getting.

Once she rejoined them, she motioned with her hand for them to come with her and quietly made a beeline for the door. Chad and Orihime just exchanged a look and grinned at each other before silently following her out of the apartment.

Out in the hallway, Shion paused in front of April and Casey's apartment door and lifted her hand to softly knock. Figuring that it was only common curtesy to ask the couple if they needed anything from the store while she was out.

It took a moment or so, but the door swung open and she found herself being stared down by April who had a slightly concerned look on her pretty face. "Shion, is everything okay? Is it your arm? Did you decide that you needed to go to the hospital after all? Hold on, let me grab my purse!"

She quickly stopped the red head by shaking her head and flailing her arms around for a second, causing April to stop rambling and blink at her as she pulled out her note pad and quickly scribbled down her question and then held it up for the woman to read as Orihime and Chad came up behind her and stopped.

**We're going out to get some food and stuff from the grocery store. Do you or Casey need anything? We can pick whatever up for you while we're out.**

April finished reading the short note and then looked at the kids again and tilted her head to the side ever so slightly as she mulled over the question before finally replying with a small smile, "No hon. We're all good here."

Shion nodded her head and put her note pad away as April asked, "Do you kids want me or Casey to come with you?"

Shion shook her head again and held out her arm and tapped her wrist watch to indicate the time. Something that April took to mean that either they had had a long day and she wanted them to just kick back and relax, or the hour was growing late and it would be dark soon and she'd rather not have them all out and wandering about in a strange city after dark.

Unaccustomed to anyone but Casey and the guys worrying about her, April wasn't sure what exactly was the right response to give the teen. So she just smiled at her and her friends and told them to be careful, not to walk down any dark alley's, and to try and be back within an couple hours or she'd send Casey out to find them.

The kids all waved at her as they walked away to go do what the needed to. Either deciding to put April's warnings out of their minds or to flat out ignore them altogether.

* * *

The moment that the kids were gone, April closed the door and took out her cell and dialed Casey's number since he had taken off to join Raph on an early patrol of the city a short while ago. And since she was trying to keep tabs on Shion, maybe Raph wouldn't mind working her and her friends into his patrol route.

_"Hello?"_ Casey answered after the second ring.

"Casey, the kids just left the building to go out and get some things. Do you think you can con Raph into joining you for a little information gathering?"

Casey was quiet for several heartbeats before saying in an bemused tone, _"Babe, I doubt either of us could stop him from checking Shion out after what Leo had told him and the others about what the kid did earlier today to those Dragons." _

"Good. I expect her and her friends to return home safely."

_"Sure thing babe." _Casey said before taking his cell away from his mouth to shout, _"Oi, Raph! April's got a job for us!" _

* * *

Two in a half hours later-

Shion was walking just a short ways ahead of them, her eerie neon blue eyes scanning the streets around them almost as if she were expecting someone to jump out at them from the shadows as Chad gathered all of the heavy shopping bags that he could manage to carry. While Orihime and Shion carried some of the smaller, lighter stuff like the pillows and clothing as they walked.

Chad and Orihime were chatting about some of the things that they planned to do while in the city. Like spend a few days sight seeing and such.

The two were so engrossed in their conversation that they almost didn't notice Shion placing her bags on the side walk and then disappearing into an alley. Pausing in mid step, Chad and Orihime both just stood there wondering why Shion had just run off and disappeared when they heard the faint sounds of a pained yelp come from somewhere above them on one of the rooftops.

"Chad?"

"Stay here- if anyone come's, _scream_." Chad said to Orihime as he set his own bags down on the side walk and then rolled his shoulders for a second before darting off into the same alley that Shion had disappeared into. Leaving the girl alone, knowing that between he and Shion- and Orihime's own abilities- that she would be fine even if someone _did_ come.

After all, it wasn't like she was defenseless. She only looked like she was.

Quickly locating the fire escape that Shion must have used to climb up to the roof just around the corner from the street a little ways, Chad grabbed it and started to climb it two steps at a time. His anxiety over what had drawn Shion away from his side reaching a fevered pitch as the sounds of voices and fighting gradually grew louder and louder with each step that he took.

* * *

Neither of them really expected this to happen. Casey especially didn't. After all, how was he supposed to know that the girl had somehow been keeping track of his and Raph's movements from the street below. She was supposed to be distracted by her friend's conversation.

Honest, she was.

For all intents and purposes- that was what the two of them had thought as they had watched the trio from the time that they had left the store.

So the sneak attack that had caught them from behind had _really_ taken them both by surprise. Raph especially, though he didn't do more than spit a few foul choice words at the kid as she nailed him in the shell with one of her feet. The blow itself wasn't so much harmful as it was attention grabbing.

_And oh my fucking god_\- did she have the _both_ of their undivided attention as Raph slowly started to push himself up to see _who_ had dared to kick him in the shell.

Casey, thankfully was wearing his mask, otherwise the kid would have probably kicked the shit out of him on sheer principle of daring to follow her and her friends in the first place like a goddamned creeper.

And since Shion had kicked Raph in his shell and knocked him down, his red masked buddy was...understandably _upset _as he glared menacingly at the teen. Especially when he had earlier commented on how the kid didn't seem all that impressive for someone who had beaten the snot out of a dozen Dragons earlier that day.

If Casey were a betting man, he'd bet that Raph had just realized that the kid was more than she appeared to be. After all, she had snuck up on one of the most well trained ninja's in the city. Second only to Leo and Splinter themselves.

That in and of itself was more than a tad bit _impressive_. It was also a serious blow to Raph's ego.

Which had the turtle growling, the sound he made was loud and angry/feral sounding even to Casey's ears. He'd only heard Raph sound like that a handful of times in all the years that he'd known him. And it was never a good thing when he made that sound.

That was the sound that he made when he wanted to break bones, rupture organs- It was a blood chilling sound that he made when he wanted _blood_. And right now he was making that sound while sizing up the kid, which had Casey sort of panicking a bit.

So much so that he was tempted to call the others for help since he seriously doubted that he'd be able to really stop or hold Raph back before he attacked the girl.

Shion just stood there, looking unbothered by the potential threat to her life as her eerie neon blue eyes flitted between the two males. One of them- the dark haired guy in the red muscle shirt with the weird white mask on, she was sure was Casey.

The guys spiritual pressure was just like Casey's. So...unless her senses had gone wonky during the time she'd been in a coma- she was fairly certain about the man's identity.

Whereas she didn't know _squat_ about the big green guy that was growling at her like a rabid dog. His amber eyes glaring at her angrily, nearly causing her lips to twitch in amusement. So much so that she had to thin her lips just to keep her amusement carefully hidden.

She was guessing that he didn't like her much at the moment because she'd managed to get the drop on him though. Which was completely understandable since she didn't tend to make it a habit to sneak up on people using her stealth skills, often.

Reaching up to rub the back of her neck awkwardly, she let her eyes flicker away from big green for a moment as he sized her up and slowly got back to his feet again.

Once big green was on his feet again, Shion glanced back at him and noted that he was a tall guy. Taller than she had thought at first due to his stooped posture. Now he looked like he was just a few inches taller than her. Which would make his height close to six foot.

Which wasn't exactly alarming to her since she'd fought people much bigger and scarier than he.

After all, she'd fought with Kenpachi. And that guy wasn't just intimidatingly tall, he was ten kinds of crazy to!

_"You!" _Big green snarled as he suddenly began to advance on her. She blinked at his tone and tensed up a little bit and waited until he made as if he were going to grab her in a threatening manner before she reacted any.

Her hands moved so fast that Raph, even with all of his years of ninja training under Splinter- was unable to so much as _see_ what she was doing until he felt an odd, almost choking kind of pressure against his shell and looked down briefly to see her palms pressed against his plastron before he realized that his feet were coming up off of the ground.

His eyes widened in shock as he went air born as the kid then did this weird hand spring, palm strike combo that he'd never seen before and sent him flying back even more before he slamming into the roof several feet away hard enough to knock the breath out of him for a moment before he quickly flipped himself up so that he was back on his feet again.

His amber eyes glaring at the kid murderously as he vaguely heard Casey speaking in a strained tone on the shell cell, "H-Hey Leo- I think we have a little bit of a situation here..."


	6. Chapter 6

"You little brat!" Raph roared as he charged the girl blindly. Shion visibly bristled a little bit and quickly side stepped the crazed, spitting mad green guy and kicked him in the shell again, causing him to stumble and almost fall before he managed to right himself.

Angry beyond all comprehension, Raph growled again and pulled his sai's out of his belt and spun them around his fingers before charging her again.

Up until then, Casey didn't think that the kid seemed to mind the verbal and physical attacks. In fact it had almost seemed as if she were sort of teasing him. But once Raph pulled his weapon's Shion seemed to decide that she was finished messing with him. Everything from her expression, to her semi relaxed demeanor shifted and changed to something much, much more_ dangerous_.

Reminding Casey far, far too damned much of both _Splinter_ and the _Shredder_.

Honestly it didn't really matter because by this point, Casey was practically shitting himself in utter terror because if someone didn't do something fast- he was fairly certain that Shion would get herself injured... _Badly_.

Raph attacked her several more times, and either got side stepped again or got his sai's deftly taken from him for his efforts. Which caused his anger to hit new, and staggering heights. So much so that he let out a loud, roar and then tackled her.

Casey was so freaked out by this unfortunate turn of events that he was frozen where he stood, the shell cell long forgotten in his grasp as Raph and the teen both hit the roof in a tangle of arms and legs before they started to roll around and throw punches.

The sickening crack of fists hitting skin sending a jolt of nausea through Casey as he tried to think of how he was going to somehow manage to explain to April about how Raph _broke_ the kid's face.

As it was, he was betting that she wouldn't take the news well.

Raph managed to grab one of Shion's wrists and grinned down at her as he tightened his grip on the appendage until there was a sickening snap. Indicating the bone had broken.

Casey's jaw dropped open and he made a weird choking sound as Shion responded in kind by grabbing Raph by his mask and rolling them until he was underneath her and began viciously slamming his head into the brick again and again and again.

Raph struggled to get his head free of her grasp, screaming all kinds of obscenities at her.

Hearing the frenzied calls of Leo and the others as they started to arrive at the scene, Casey barely managed to turn his head to acknowledge their presence as they landed on the rooftop behind him when Leo stepped forward and shouted, "That's enough!"

Raph froze up automatically.

Shion though...didn't bother to so much as stop just yet- she merely glanced over her shoulder at Leo, Don and Mikey and then unrepentantly slammed Raph's head against the roof one last time before she then quickly removed herself from him and got to her feet as Chad made an surprise appearance seconds later and hurried over to the girl and glanced at the lot of them before he noticed she was hurt and gently took her broken wrist in one of his large hands and carefully examined it as Leo began tearing into Raph.

"What the hell did you think you were doing fighting a kid like that Raph?"

"She started-"

"No! You do not get to pull that shit here! Not now- that girl is almost five years younger than we are! She is a kid! You aren't. That immature, 'she started it' crap isn't going to fly here!"

"Well maybe is she hadn't have kicked me and instigated a fight- I wouldn't have hit her any!" Raph shouted back at Leo who merely clenched his teeth and snarled something at him in Japanese, effectively silencing his hot headed brother for the moment before turning to the girl.

His dark eyes carefully looking her over for any sign of serious injury before stopping at her broken wrist. The area was swollen and had painful looking dark bruises that looked suspiciously like Raph's hand print encircling it. Outside of that though, her injuries looked totally superficial.

Just a few dark splotches here and there from being hit by Raph's fists. Which made Leo wonder if perhaps his brother had been pulling his punches.

Everyone and their cousin knew that Raph and superficial wounds simply didn't go hand and hand. He simply was too angry, and undisciplined. His fists tended to _break_ and _crush_ bones and shred muscle without even putting in an effort.

Still...Leo was a little bit glad to see that the girl wasn't so irrevocably damaged by his brother that she would need to be carried to the closest hospital for immediate medical care.

"Don, could you look at her and make sure that she's okay. Her wrist looks like it needs to be wrapped."

"Sure." Don said as he started to walk over to the two teens when the boy grabbed the girl up in his arms and moved away, putting as much distance as possible between them and the turtles. Don stopped walking and looked at the teens and then back at his older brother, wondering how he was going to look at the girl's injuries when the boy refused to let him near her.

Not that he could actually blame him any.

Raph had hurt her. And from the protective way the boy was acting, he didn't see much of a difference between Don and Raph.

"Um...I-I just want to look at her injuries." Don stammered out nervously. Something about the boy was setting off warning bells in his mind.

"No." The boy said, his voice a deep rumbling growl filled with _anger_ and _menace._

"Please," Don said as he held his hands out in front of him in a placating gesture. "I'm just want to make sure that she doesn't need to go to the hospital, nothing more."

"No. She doesn't need your help. Our friend can treat her injuries."

"Look I understand that you're reluctant to trust someone that's friends with the hotheaded moron," Don said earning a loud growl of annoyance form Raph that almost had the purple masked turtle cringing. "But your friend might be seriously injured! I can already tell that her wrist is broken- What if she has a concussion or internal bleeding or something?"

"Shion does need-" The kid was cut off by the girl pressing a palm to his chest directly over his heart. He looked down at her, his dark eyes studying the girl's expression for a moment before he huffed and reluctantly released her and moved back as he said, "Fine. Look her over. Just know that if you do anything stupid to injure her further- you'll be dead before you hit the ground."

Don balked for a second because of the threat, but shook off his anxiety and finished crossing the space between his brothers and the kids. Noting that the boy had stepped back a foot or so where he was standing, with his arms crossed over his chest, watching him like a hawk.

Finally coming to a stop directly in front of the girl, Don gave the girl a strained looking smile as she held out her arm for him to look at it.

Carefully taking the injured limb in his hands, he turned her arm this way and that before lightly running his fingers along the swollen area to feel how badly it was hurt. The moment that he felt the broken bones underneath his fingers, he mentally cursed Raphael's stupidity.

I mean really- what kind of adult did this kind of damage to a kid? Regardless of what she may or may not have done to instigate the violence, Raph had been wrong to raise his hand to her in such a manner when he was only supposed to have been _watching_ her and gathering information.

"Don? What's the verdict?" Leo called out.

"Well her wrist is definitely broken. I can feel the break of the bone under my finger's. I can maybe give her something for any pain and discomfort that she's feeling right now, but she's going to need her wrist reset and wrapped at the hospital."

Leo made a frustrated sound and muttered something inaudible underneath his breath. Likely something about the idiocies of hot heads given how upset he was by Raphael's actions.

"Okay, do it." Leo called back. Don nodded his head and started to dig in one of the pouches he wore on his belt for some medicine to dull the pain that the girl had to be feeling when she tugged her arm out of his grasp and stepped back away from him with a wary look on her face.

"Hey, no, no, no- I'm not going to hurt you, I swear! I-I have medicine, it can dull the pain and discomfort that your feeling until you can get your wrist taken care of by a doctor."

"Don't bother," The boy said in a calmer tone. Some of the anger from before having drained away as he had watched him check over Shion. "She won't let you drug her and dull her senses. That kind of vulnerability can be costly. Especially when she may need to have a clear head."

"B-But she's in pain!"

"Doesn't matter. She's had much worse than a simple broken bone before. Trust me on that," The boy said as he moved forward again and very carefully collected the girl and settled her in the crook of one of his arms and then moved back a step before saying, "Your friend is very lucky that she didn't see him as such a threat that she needed to fight him seriously. If she had...there wouldn't be enough of him left to fit into a shoe box. Oh- and tell Mr. Jones that he and Shion _will_ be having words about this incident later."


	7. Chapter 7

**Does anyone out there wanna see a Bleach/Assassionation Classroom fic? I do. **

**What I wouldn't do for some fem Ichigo/Nagisa, or even fem Ichigo/Karma, or even Fem Ichigo/Nagisa/Karma fics!**

**But then I also wanna see more Stargate SG-1/Bleach and Danny Phantom fics. And Danny Phantom/Avengers. **

**Magi/Avengers. **

**How to train your Dragon/Avengers**

**Some awesome Inuyash/Avengers**

**But I think I'd settle for some awesome Bleach/Assassination Classroom fics….**

**(cringes) I'm sort of running out of reading material. (cringes again) Sorry...**

* * *

The moment that the kids were gone, Leo rounded on Raph again and demanded, "Did you pull you're punches any?" Though he already knew the answer to his question, given the incredibly agitated state that his brother was in- there was something…._oddly_ suspicious about the kid, Shion.

Something that he couldn't quite put his finger on.

The disturbing parting words of her big buddy notwithstanding.

After all, it was normal- at least to Leo- that teenager's would be arrogant enough to think that they could kick people's asses without suffering any injury- mortal or otherwise. Kid's the girl, and her friend's age tended to have this, _I-can-take-on-the_-_world-and-win_ kind of mentality that normally set Leo's teeth on edge.

After all, children regardless of the age rarely knew or had any concept of the true horrors that lurked around every corner in the real world.

However this time... There was just something about _these_ kids that made him undeniably, nervous and wary. It wasn't often that he and his brothers came across a human- any human for that matter, that could go head to head with one of them and suffer a minimum amount of injuries.

In face the only real human that had managed it to date had been the _Shredder- _years ago when he had still been alive. But then the girl hadn't exactly been throwing off any super ax-murderer/serial killer vibes that Leo had come to associate with the late villain.

If anything, she had seemed...strangely at peace with things. As if the run in with Raph and the fight that had followed was something akin to testing the water's for her. Part of him could understand this, and part of him wondered if she had just been information gathering on things such as weak points, fighting style, strength, stamina ect...

Frankly it was just all kinds of weird to Leo.

Sighing, he moved over to the edge of the rooftop and peeked over the side and blinked at the sight below.

There were three kids now, Shion, the boy and another girl. Shion was standing with her arm extended towards the other girl, who wore an expression of extreme concentration on her pretty face as she placed her hands on the broken wrist for a moment before dropping her hands back to her sides with a sunny smile as Shion flexed her wrist this way and that and wiggled her fingers.

It took a moment or so for Leo to figure out what he was staring at. But when he finally understood that there was just something..._not right_, his dark eyes zeroed in on the girl's injured wrist for a moment. Noting that the swelling, dark bruises, and injury altogether- seemed to have magically disappeared as if they had never been.

Sucking in a shaky breath, Leo watched the trio as they picked up their things and started walking. Getting almost all the way to the corner before Shion turned her head and glanced in his direction from over her shoulder before disappearing from sight.

* * *

A short time later the turtles, and Casey found themselves standing in front of a very, very unhappy April as she screamed at both Raph and Casey for what had happened between Raph and Shion while the rest of them wondered briefly how she knew about the incident.

At least until she grabbed a plastic bag full of band aids, pain killers, heating and cooling pads anticeptic spray and a few other things, including a Hallmark card that upon being opened said- _So sorry that you're feeling under the weather, but that's what happens when I kick your ass. _

Followed by a neat, cursive scrawl underneath that that read; _P.S. A word of advice for not getting beaten up again- steer clear of any and all dark alleys from now on. **I will be looking**..._

The card wasn't signed by a name. Instead there was a nice doodle of Raph with his eyes as X's and his tongue hanging out of his mouth and a doodle of the girl standing behind him holding up her fingers in victory.

Don and Mikey had difficulty containing themselves after they had both read and looked at the card. Leo himself idly wondered if Shion had a death wish, though Raph's reaction to the card _was_ pretty funny. The bellow of unyielding rage that practically shook the window's afterwards- was not so much amusing as it was expected.

So was the beeline he made for the apartment door before Leo and the others grabbed him and dragged him back away from it.

After all, the kid was antagonizing Raphael. That was like poking an angry dragon or something. It simply wasn't done if one wanted to live a long life. And right now, Raph wanted blood.

The girl's blood to be more specific.

It took a little bit of doing, but Leo managed to pin Raph down and handed Mikey a length of rope that he always carried on him just in case they ran into someone in need of being tied up, and let his youngest brother have fun tying Raph up while Leo gagged him.

One he was done doing that, he slowly got to his feet and was dusting himself off when he caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye and froze.

Completely.

Staring wide eyed at the thing that caused him to freeze up and pretend to be a statue, he took a moment to internally panic as April and Casey turned and followed the path of his gaze to find Orihime standing just inside of the doorway, looking somewhat bemused by the whole spectacle.

"Orihime!" April practically yelped as she darted over to the teen and quickly grabbed her and pulled her further inside of the apartment and none too gently closed the door behind her before turning her attention to the girl. "What are you doing just barging into my home like that?" April almost shouted at the girl.

Orihime merely thinned her lips as she regarded the woman carefully for a moment before saying hesitantly, "I knocked, but it was really loud in here- and I kind of thought that you _might_ be in trouble..."

"Huh?" Was all that April could manage to say as she mulled over the teenager's words in stupefied silence as the girl silently pulled herself free of April's grasp and quietly walked over to Leo and smiled and held her hand out to him.

"Hi, I'm Orihime."

Leo continued to do his impression of a statue for several more moments. His dark eyes flickering between the girl's smiling face and her hand. One of the same hands that had somehow mysteriously healed Shion's broken wrist.

Orihime frowned when he didn't take her hand, and quickly figured out what the problem was. "Oh... You saw me didn't you?"

Leo's eyes flickered to her face again, his expression wary as she dropped her hand for a second and then fished something out of one of her pant's pockets and dug out a small knife and flicked it open.

Instantly on alert, Leo prepared for her to make some sort of attempt to attack him and was unprepared for her to extend her arm again and press the small but sharp blade against her wrist and slowly cut it.

Eyes going wide in alarm, he quickly snatched her bleeding arm and held the wound tightly enough to bend the bones in her arm as he started to open his mouth to shout at her when he his angry/panicked words died on his tongue when the floral hair clips that she wore in her hair, somehow broke apart and little flying things appeared.

_"Soten Kisshun, I reject."_ She said as the tiny flying things fluttered over her injury and began to glow a bright orange color as Leo quickly yanked his hand away from her arm and stared, uncertain as to what to do or how to react as her wound slowly knitted itself together before his very eyes.

Once it was gone, the tiny flying things began to flutter around the girl's head for several moments before converging together again and the hair clips that she had been wearing moments before fell from above her, into her awaiting hands. "Thank you for your help guys." The girl said as she reattached the clips to her hair and then turned her attention to Leo, ignoring the weird shocked looks from everyone else in the room.

She blushed and made a weird coughing sound before stammering out awkwardly, "T-They're my friends... So what's you're name?"

Leo' jaw worked for several seconds before he heard Don ask in bewilderment from his hiding place behind the curtains a few feet away, _"W-What was that?" _

* * *

The moment that they had gotten back from their little outing, Chad had practically attacked her. Not that she hadn't been expecting it. She had. It was the fact that he was unusually pissed by the fact that she had run off alone and gotten into a knock down drag out fist fight with the big green guy.

That sort of surprised her.

Thank god Orihime had run when she had- Shion doubted that Chad had enough control at the moment to give much of a damn about having an audience as he'd picked her up and practically run to her bedroom where he'd not even paused to close the door before he'd dropped her on the bed and started striping.

She'd squeaked a little bit in alarm once his hands went to his jeans, but she'd wisely stayed put knowing that if he would run her down if she decided to make a break for it at this point. And it wouldn't end too well for her if he had to chase her down either.

Not that she minded overly much. She was a bit wound up and in need of relief to.

So what was a few extra bruises here and there if it meant they _both_ got some relief? It wasn't like Chad would actually hurt her. He was far too gentle, despite how pissed he was.

Once he had slipped his shoes off, he slowly climbed onto her bed and grabbed her. His large hands encircling her slender waist and tugging her towards him until she was right where he wanted her before he muttered, "You are far too reckless."

Shion knew he was right. But in this case, it wasn't so much reckless of her to run off and get into a fist fight. Besides in her eyes it was totally justified. The big green guy and Casey had been following them. Well, _stalking_ them was a bit more accurate.

But still, her actions were justified. After all, they could have been bad guys or something.

Chad let out a rumbling sound that jolted her out of her thoughts as he growled out, "Pay attention when I'm talking to you, Shi."

She made a silent huffing sound and mouthed the words,_ 'Yes dear.'_ As he leaned over her and pressed his mouth against her collar bone before lightly biting her. She jumped at the unexpected sensation of his teeth on her and made a funny little yelping sound that had Chad smirking against her skin as he skimmed his large hands up her body.

* * *

Orihime sat across from April, Casey and their friends nibbling her bottom lip anxiously as she waited for someone to say something.

"Okay so let me get this straight," April started. "You have special abilities that allow you to bend physics, and the laws of space and time?"

"Basically." Orihime said after a moment.

"How-"

"Oh, I brought some stuff that Shion stole from an enemy that explains everything. I'll let you and your friends borrow it, if you really want to know that is."

"Wait, wait, wait- Shion steals?" Casey asked in a curious tone. Earning a dark glare from April.

"Well the information that she took was about her and the rest of her family and friends so... Yeah, I guess." Orihime said thoughtfully.

April sighed, feeling the onset of a headache. Her head was already spinning from the information that Orihime had given them about her abilities. And then to learn that Shion stole things...

It was starting to become too much. This was simply too much stuff to dump on someone after one day as Casey decided that they needed to know everything and told the girl to hand over what Shion had stolen.

Orihime nodded at him and then reached into the inside of her jacket pocket's and pulled out a couple of disks labeled in code that the turtles had seen before in science labs followed by a thick yellow file that she then placed on the coffee table between them and then sat back in her seat.

"A word of caution, I hope that none of you are squeamish. Cause what is on that disk isn't for the faint of heart." She said in an unusually sober tone, the smile on her face had faded and her expression was carefully masked.


	8. Chapter 8

Orihime as it turned out, had temporarily been kicked out of Shion's apartment. Though she didn't give April the reason why. She only said that she needed to hang around for a little bit.

Shortly after that, April, Casey and the turtles- except Raph, who was still sort of tied up- all sat on the couch anxiously watching the first disk.

The first scene was of a dark haired scientist named Sosuke Aizen. At first glance, he was just another man in a lab coat, but as he started talking about the ultimate weapon of mass destruction- he just started to sound like your typical lunatic. However it was when an image of Shion as a little kid with shoulder length, vivid orange hair and wide innocent amber eyes, appeared in the corner of the screen- that things actually got interesting.

The man went on to say that he had conducted several experiments on some couples, playing match maker so that they would have an ideal offspring. And out of several dozen, only one couple had yielded fruit. He then went on to speak of Shion's mother and father and their innate abilities and how powerful he believed the girl would be with the right guidance.

After he signed off and the first scene ended, another- more grainy image of Shion appeared on the screen, looking almost like a home movie. They watched the video with avid interest up until they realized that they were watching the death of her mother.

A sick feeling coiled in their gut as the video cut out once the girl sat up from underneath her dead mother's body and began screaming.

The next video of her showed her a little bit older.

In this video, she was in the male version of her middle school's uniform. She was being held down by some high schoolers with her arms twisted up behind her back and there was blood running down her face as she _glared_ at the guy that was about to crush her skull in with a home made sledge hammer.

"Say your prayers you little bitch-" The guy with the hammer said as he lifted it up over his head in preparation to hit her. She merely smirked evilly at him and spat out.

"You first..._bitch._" There was the sound of shouting coming from several dozen or so feet behind the small group as a tall boy with tan skin and wavy shoulder length brown hair appeared.

It was the boy, Chad. And apparently they were seeing how the two met for the first time.

A few videos after that showed the two walking to and from school together. Chad being jumped by gang members and Shion coming to his rescue. The last video of the two was especially telling.

Chad was tied to a sturdy woody chair by thick woven, metal cables and the gold necklace that Shion had asked about previously in another video, was taken from him and held up by a punk like a trophy when she came barreling out of nowhere and nailed the guy holding it with a flying kick to the face.

The fight wasn't really the part that interested them the most. Though it was nice to know that the girl tended to almost obsessively look out for her friends. Often times whether they needed looking after or not.

It was a small glimpse of her character that they hadn't really seen much of yet.

But it was the words exchanged between her and Chad after the fight, when she was lying in the dirt. Bloody and bruised, her clothes dirty and torn almost beyond repair as she held Chad's necklace up for him to see and said, "I can't really say that I understand why you refuse to fight for yourself. So how about we make a deal? If you won't fight for yourself, then use those fists for me. That way you get to keep your promise to your grandpa, and you don't have to worry about breaking your word. And if there is anything that you love so much that you'll risk you're life for it- well then, I'll risk my life too." She finished the words with a small grin as the boy told her that- that was a damn fine deal.

The next few video's didn't make a lick of sense. Well sort of.

Several new people and faces were introduced. Tatsuki Arisawa, Japan's top number two female fighter. Orihime. Someone named Uryu Ishida. A girl named Rukia Kuchiki- who also had strange abilities.

And then the next slew of videos that explained some things.

Rukia's introduction went hand in hand with an attack on Shion's family. One that Shion tried to stop.

The scene of the video where Rukia held out her sword and told Shion to impale herself on it if she wanted to save her family- was more than a little bit difficult to ignore. So was the fact that the stupid kid grabbed it and pulled it in a jerky motion, sending the sharp blade all the way through her chest and out her back followed by a blinding flash of white light and the physical changes.

When the light died down, Shion was dressed differently. Her eyes were darker, the warm amber color looked almost pitch black and she had a massive sword that was almost twice her size and her bodies width, slung across her slender shoulders.

The video's that followed Shion's first change into a- a _soul reaper_, were mind numbingly shocking. But then so were some of the _vicious_ fights, and the almost constant _attacks_ on her person that followed.

The first video covered everything through Shion's several close brushes with death, the combat situations that she encountered in a place called, Soul Society. Which to them seemed like an alternate reality of some kind. As well as her self imposed mission to save the life of Rukia.

Who had been taken back to the Soul Society to face execution for her 'crime'.

Everything sort of blurred together from there. The video's of Shion's battles to reach Rukia often had Casey and April either chewing their nails nervously, or gasping in outrage.

The particularly horrible fight between Shion and someone named Kenpachi almost had even _Leo_ in tears as he and his brothers watched the battle to it's climax in utter horror.

How any fourteen year old girl could suffer such terrible wounds and survive was beyond them. Even Don dared to mention that the odds of someone surviving those kinds of injuries were astronomical.

The next few battles after that were just as mind boggling as the others- if one were perfectly honest. Yet she always seemed to come out alive, and on top.

Rukia's rescue almost had them all cheering- they were all so freakishly invested in seeing what happened next that if any of the Foot clan or the Purple Dragon's had dared to sneak up to April's apartment at this point- they probably would have slaughtered them just so that they could finish the videos uninterrupted.

Altogether the disks took the better part of two in a half hours to wrap up.

The last fight on the third disk was between the scientist Aizen and Shion. And it was agonizing to sit and watch. Mainly because the girl was already so weak and exhausted. The injuries sustained in the fights before were taking their toll on her.

Her soul reaper power kept fading away, and with it her ability to adequately defend herself.

In the end, she somehow managed to prevail- though it was a close thing. Perhaps a little bit too close for comfort. The last scene in the final video was of her lying, bleeding and broken in the middle of the battle field, her soul reaper powers gone.

She had been stripped bare, sacrificing them in an effort to defeat Aizen. Shortly thereafter, she passed out in a pool of her own blood and several people ran to help her. Their voices carrying through the speakers of the TV as everything slowly faded to nothing.

One voice called out for her to hold on. Another swore and shouted for a medic- _the girl was fading fast. _Someone else called out that there was no pulse and then- then there was nothing but silence.

April got up and walked to her bedroom and closed the door as Casey scrubbed his face and shut off the TV before asking Orihime, "It's all real? All of that actually happened? To you? To her? To your friends?"

"Yes. All of it happened."

"I-Is that why she was in a coma?"

"Yes," Orihime admitted before then saying, "She appeared to have used up all of her power to defeat Aizen. But...once she managed to wake up- we could finally _feel_ her again."

"What exactly does that mean? You could feel her again?"

"What it means is that Shion has regained her soul reaper abilities at an alarming rate in a very short amount of time. What that also means is that she is more powerful than she was before. It's part of the reason that she was abandoned by her father. After the fight with Aizen, he was locked away in a maximum security prison in the Soul Society. However, he has a _lot_ of friends in high places, and was able to escape shortly before she awakened from the coma and went after her family."

"Her dad was left with a very difficult decision to make. Sacrifice the child that _could_ protect herself. Or the two that _couldn't_. He chose Shion's younger and more defenseless sisters over her. He hated doing it. But once the choice was made, he set things up and left her a substantial amount of money to use until she was more able to live on her own. And he packed up his younger daughters and he left."

"Wait- you mean that that freak show is free? After everything that she did to stop him?"

"I'm afraid so."

"Son of a-"

"Language Casey." Leo snapped automatically. Casey made a strained sound in the back of his throat and shot Leo a glare as he asked.

"If this Aizen guy is free again, he's coming for her. Isn't he?"

"Yes. And this time the fight between them will span the entire city. Innocent bystander's will be injured perhaps even killed. Shion would try to minimize the damage, destruction, injuries and death to the best of her abilities- but she's only one person."

"Then we should come up with a plan to help her." Don said as Leo, Mikey, and Casey all nodded sagely as Raph finally managed to spit out the gag that Leo had stuffed in his mouth earlier and asked in a rough tone.

"If Shion and that Aizen guy fight again... Will she just fight to send him back to prison again?"

Orihime was silent. And that silence was telling if the reactions of the turtles and Casey were an indication at all. The quiet apartment, suddenly erupted in utter chaos.


	9. Chapter 9

Chad had been curled up against Shion's back for the last twenty minutes or so feeling a sense of masculine pride. It wasn't an easy thing for someone of Shion's caliber to let someone else take control over her. Even more so to allow someone to manipulate her into coming apart for them.

She was always so cautious.

So worried that leaving herself vulnerable even for an instant could mean all the difference between life and death. He couldn't exactly blame her for feeling that way.

Her activities as a soul reaper were mostly to blame.

But then, when one was fighting against supernatural beings almost constantly… Beings of great power, and incredible skill- beings that were predators unlike anything that she had ever encountered before- the constant wariness and worry was more than a little bit understandable.

Especially when he fought by her side so often in an attempt to help her protect others and more importantly; _keep her alive_\- because he _knew_.

He knew that of all the monster's, and all the villains in all of creation- _none_ of them compared to the darkness that Shion carried within herself. That darkness and sort of maliciousness made her very existence trump all others.

His dear friend was the predator's predator.

The monster of all monsters.

Aizen had made a huge mistake in poking the sleeping beast sheltered underneath the thin layer of civility. And when he finally came for her, and he would, because he was obsessed with her and her abilities- Chad was going to enjoy watching his girl pick the sorry son of a bitch apart _piece_ by bloody _piece_.

Rising up on his elbow, he cast a glance down at his friend and smiled softly at the sight of her. No matter how many times this happened, he still couldn't find it in himself to deny that Shion was a stunningly beautiful young woman.

But then he'd always thought she was beautiful. Even back before she had colored her hair and changed her eye color. Back in the days when he remembered her as Ichigo, his punk friend/partner in crime, and not Shion.

Leaning over the sleeping girl, he pressed he started to press his lips against her shoulder when she somehow managed to muster up enough strength to crack open one of her eyes in a deceptively lazy manner and turned her head away from him in an silent invitation.

Chad paused for a moment to weigh the pros and cons before going ahead with his initial plan. As much as he would have liked to unwind a little bit more and finally collapse and fall asleep beside her for a while, however he knew that someone needed to go and find Orihime.

The girl simply couldn't be left on her own for too long _without_ supervision. She tended to get herself into mischief when she went too long without being watched by someone.

He just hoped that she hadn't left the building otherwise he'd spend the next few hours trying to track her down.

Kissing Shion on the shoulder, he muttered a soft apology. Both for having to go collect Orihime and for being so rough with her earlier.

Shion made a soft huffing sound and gave him a faint smile to let him know that she didn't mind overly much and then waited for him to get out of bed to get dressed before she rolled over onto her stomach and sighed as she let her eyes drift closed again as exhaustion finally settled in and she allowed herself to drift off knowing that she'd be able to sense Chad and Orihime's energy if they got themselves into any kind of trouble.

* * *

Orihime watched the guys descend into total pandemonium around her with a wide eyed expression of comical horror on her pretty face. _Oh dear god_\- Shion and Chad were going to skin her alive _when_ either of them came to fetch her and found this crap.

_Be the Hatter- not the madness. _She could almost hear Shion advise her. Though she figured the saying to mean something along the lines of, _Be sly, be clever, be manipulative, but don't be crazy_.

It was something that Shion had started saying to herself after first discovering her inner hollow and the utter madness that seemed to attach itself to it.

Be the Hatter- not the madness. Orihime supposed that the saying was Shions way of assuring herself that while she was technically the Mad Hatter, she wasn't the least bit mad _nor_ insane.

_Yet._

That sort of irreparable damage took many, many years to accumulate.

Luckily for her, she was so strong willed. Otherwise her inner hollow's insanity would have started to leak through into her daily life _long_ before it had even been discovered.

Jolting out of her thoughts when someone overturned the coffee table, she jumped as it crashed to the floor before finally having enough of everyone's attitude. After all, it wasn't really any of their concern whether or not Shion fought Aizen to the death the next time they met anyways.

The _only_ reason that she had allowed them to see the disks in the first place was to answer some of their questions about some of Shion's abilities and actions. Aside from that, she had also felt it in everyone's best interest to let them know what would happen later on.

To sit back and say nothing and allow innocent people to become cannon fodder was more than irresponsible in her eyes. It was unforgiveable.

_"Knock it off right now!" _She shouted, causing everyone to pause what they were doing and freeze up in mid motion to look at her.

* * *

Splinter had been in the middle of his late evening meditation when his shell cell started to ring. Ears flickering as he cracked an eye open to make sure that it wasn't one of his sons- all of whom had torn out of the lair like the hounds of hell were nipping at their heels, earlier.

He was only slightly mollified to see that it was April's number on the cell's ID.

Sighing since his concentration had been broken, he reached down and picked up his phone and flicked it open and started to ask what was wrong when he heard April sob out 'Splinteretta' the name of his female alter ego that he'd developed over the years for April to unburden herself too when something was terribly wrong, from the other end of the line and huffingly rolled his eyes before telling her to wait one moment.

He needed to dig out his blond, curly wig and his lipstick and put them on otherwise he wouldn't be able to get into the proper head space to pull off the whole 'Splinteretta' thing.

Quietly getting up and shuffling over to one of the trunks that he used to store things in his room, he opened the lid of the nearest one and pulled out his old 'goldielocks' wig. And then took a moment to put it on before then digging out three different shades of lipstick and wondering idly what color his alter ego felt like wearing today?

Did his other self feel like being a pink girl today? A peach girl? Or a ruby red girl?

Ah to hell with it- if he was going to pick a color, he wanted one that made him feel pretty.

So...pink it was.

Once he was done putting the lipstick on, he cleared his throat and then adopted his falsetto, girly voice and then put the phone up to his ear and greeted April in a fake southern accent while mentally lamenting the sort of things that he did for his family.

"April, I haven't heard from you in forever- how are you...hon?" Damn, that last word always tripped him up. How did people from the south manage to talk like this and _not_ trip themselves up? He wondered idly as April began to spill her guts about everything that had happened so far with her young charge in between sobs.

And once she finally finished telling him everything, he couldn't exactly say that he was a hundred percent pleased to know what she had learned. The part about the girl and Raphael getting into a fist fight was certainly displeasing to him- and he would be having words with his son once he got his claws on him.

But to learn that April's charge was part of some sort of mad man's experiment, upset him greatly as well. Finally after several heartbeats of weighing the pros and cons, Splinter decided that perhaps he should introduce himself to the girl sooner than he had initially thought that he would- but first...

First he really needed to ditch the lipstick and the wig.

After all, if any of his sons saw him like this their first reaction would be to take a picture and post it somewhere in instagram or something. And the world of online social media, was _not_ his best friend.

* * *

The moment that Chad stepped into April's apartment to collect Orihime and took in the sight before him. He wished that he could simply turn and walk away and pretend that he hadn't seen Casey, and his four green friends all sitting on the floor in the seiza position being yelled at by the girl.

However it would be wrong to just up and leave them to Orihime's weirdly brutal mercies. Or at least that was what he tried to convince himself as he quietly closed the door to the apartment, drawing several curiously pleading looks from one or two of the green guys.

The one in purple and the one in orange to be more specific.

"Orihime," He said as he walked up behind her while she was in mid rant, causing her to turn her head and look at him for a moment before falling silent. Anything that she'd been about to yell at the lot of males, dying on her tongue as she turned to face him. "Come on. It's time to go." He said as he held out a hand and placed it over the nape of her neck so that he could direct her to the door before anything else happened.

Orihime though, seemed to have other ideas entirely and instead of letting him lead her to the door and simply leave, elbowed him sharply in the side and left him standing there to resume yelling at the guys whom had all started to get up only to sink back down into the seiza position with a groan once they knew that she wasn't leaving anytime soon.

Or at least until her fit of feminine ire had finally managed to run it's course.


End file.
